Paxson Lifting Celtics

By SAM GOLDAPER

Published: May 3, 1988

Danny Ainge, who led the National Basketball Association with 148 baskets from 3-point range, was a key in the Knicks' defensive plans for their playoff series against the Boston Celtics.

The Knicks' defense and foul trouble limited Ainge's playing time to 22 minutes in the opening game Friday night and his output to 2 points. Enter Jim Paxson. In his first playoff game as a Celtic, the 6-foot-5-inch, 200-pound guard scored 12 points in 28 minutes, blocked two shots, had three assists and made several intangible contributions that do not show up in box scores. Paxson's Influence Noted

Rick Pitino, the Knick coach, said he thought that Paxson had a profound influence on the Celtics' 112-92 victory. ''I still can't believe he's in a Celtic uniform,'' Pitino said after the game.

How Boston, one of the N.B.A's highest paid teams, was able to fit Paxson, one of the highest-paid guards in the league, into its salary cap has become a much talked about subject around the league.

''There is some money floating around there somewhere and it's going to show up,'' said Al Bianchi, the Knicks' general manager. ''If the other teams on the Celtics' level don't care and are not complaining, then I don't care either.''

Paxson, helped by an offer sheet the Knicks tried to get him to sign before the 1984-85 season, was earning a little more than $1 million a year when the Portland Trail Blazers traded him to the Celtics for Jerry Sichting and future considerations on Feb. 23, two days before the trading deadline. At the time, the Celtics, under cap restrictions, were said to have had about $400,000 available to pay Paxson. Loophole in Salary Cap? Did the Celtics find a loophole in the cap? Was Paxson, who tried leave Portland twice before, so eager to leave the Trail Blazers where he was getting limited playing time, that he agreed to renegotiate his contract?

''It was a combination of both,'' Gary Bettman, the N.B.A.'s vice president and general counsel, said yesterday. ''Paxson agreed to a new contract over the next two years that will pay him significantly less than he would have earned in Portland. However, under the salary cap provisions, as they existed, a team may choose to extend the contract of one of its players.'' Although none of the parties will say how it was done, Paxson apparently agreed to a contract with less money over a longer period of time.

However, Bettman said that under the new six-year labor agreement announced last Tuesday between the league and the players' union, the contract Paxson signed will no longer be legal.

''A player will no longer be able to reduce his salary for the purpose of a trade to get a contract extension, which the Celtics may have chosen to do for Paxson,'' Bettman said.

But the Celtics, as their past acquisitions will attest, have and will always find a way to plug a hole. They did it with Bailey Howell, Wayne Embry, Don Nelson, Charlie Scott, Robert Parish, Paul Silas, Dennis Johnson and Bill Walton, who left other teams to come to Boston and earn a championship ring.

The Paxson trade, which several N.B.A. people have said could lead to a 17th Celtic championship, is being compared to the deal that brought Mychal Thompson from the San Antonio Spurs to the Los Angeles Lakers, a few days before the 1987 trading deadline. The 6-10 Thompson had a profound effect on the Lakers, helping them dethrone the Celtics as champion last June.

''Everyone said that because of the style of basketball the Celtics play and the way I play, they would be a perfect team for me,'' said Paxson, whose brother John plays for the Chicago Bulls. ''I never gave it a thought before this season because I never thought it might happen. Now that it has, it's like a second career for me.''